The Private Finance Initiative has not gone away it's just adapted to meet changing times. Mark Hellowell explores the opportunities and pitfalls in the new areas that the programme is expanding...
Last week's Budget announced more support for university-based research. But will it be enough to save the science departments that are closing across Britain? Stephen Court reports on the parlous...
Housing will face an extremely tough Spending Review in 2006 unless it gets into the habit of making year-on-year efficiency gains, Simon Ridley, head of housing at the Treasury, told the National...
Further education colleges will discuss the extension of the two-tier workforce agreement to their sector but have given no commitment on implementation, their representative body has told Public...
People will no longer languish in 'dead-end' jobs, the education secretary promised this week as she unveiled plans to extend skills training across the entire workforce.
District councils in Northern Ireland could be reduced from 26 to seven and given new legal powers under proposals published by the Review of Public Administration.
Gordon Brown heralded root-and-branch reforms to the regulation of public services as he used his Budget statement to announce plans to slash the number of inspectorates from 11 to four.
Sir Andrew Turnbull has admitted that the distinction made between back-office and frontline civil servants, one of the initial tenets of the government's £40bn efficiency agenda, 'was a mistake'.
Nine out of ten universities intend to charge tuition fees at the highest possible rate of £3,000 a year but they insist that poorer students will be supported with a generous package of bursaries.
The Freedom of Information Act brings greater transparency about public sector spending and decision-making. But there are some grey areas, such as internal audit and fraud investigations, where...
Directly elected mayors were once ministerial flavour of the month but the policy was resoundingly rejected by voters. Now, even John Prescott has converted to the idea. David Harding reports
Ealing council was improving by leaps and bounds, the Audit Commission itself said so. So when its 'good' assessment was downgraded to 'weak', the London borough went to court and won
Unpublished research by the Conservative party has found that rural and smaller primary schools are resorting to 'drastic measures' to meet the national workload agreement, Tim Collins has told...
University teachers and lecturers could be facing below-inflation salary increases following a settlement that increases core funding by just 1%, the higher education sector has warned.
Conservative efficiency plans are robust and the full financial burdens of scrapping 168 quangos and laying off 235,000 staff have been built into the party's £35bn savings target, according to...
